The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-64531 filed on Mar. 8, 2001 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an air cleaner for adsorbing fuel vapor which leaks out from an air intake system of an internal combustion engine such as a vehicle engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an air cleaner for adsorbing fuel vapor which leaks out from an air intake system of an internal combustion engine, such as a vehicle engine, is generally provided with a housing, which is divided into a first housing and a second housing (also referred to as xe2x80x9ccasexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccapxe2x80x9d), an element disposed in the housing, and an adsorbent sheet, which is also disposed within the housing, for preventing the fuel vapor from the internal combustion engine from being released into the outside air.
With this type of air cleaner, however, regulations require that the adsorbent sheet be carefully installed so that it will not easily detach from the air cleaner. As a result, it is extremely difficult to remove the adsorbent sheet from the air cleaner when the adsorbent sheet is to be recycled.
Further, with this type of air cleaner, even if the shape of the opening is the same, the way in which the air cleaner attaches to an intake duct, an exhaust duct, and other functional members differ when it is installed in a vehicle. As a result, a plurality of installation portions formed on the first housing or the second housing for fixing the adsorbent sheet are not able to be formed in the same location for different types of air cleaners. Therefore, installation holes in the adsorbent sheet which correspond to these installation portions are set individually, corresponding to the locations of the installation portions. This means that for one type of air cleaner, only an adsorbent sheet which corresponds to that air cleaner can be used. It is therefore desirable to have a common adsorbent sheet that can be used with more than one type of air cleaner.
It is an object of the invention to provide an air cleaner which enables a common adsorbent sheet to be used, and which facilitates the removal of the adsorbent sheet when it is to be recycled.
According to a first aspect of the invention, an air cleaner is provided with: a housing which is divided into a first housing and a second housing; an element which fits between the first housing and the second housing; an adsorbent sheet fixed in at least one of the first housing and the second housing, in which the periphery of the absorbent sheet is retained by a frame; a plurality of installation holes provided in the frame; and a plurality of installation portions which are provided on at least one of the first housing and the second housing, which fix in the installation holes. Moreover, there is at least one more installation hole than there are installation portions.
Accordingly, because there is at least one more installation hole provided in the frame of the adsorbent sheet than there are installation portions provided on the first housing or the second housing, an installation portion may be located anywhere as long as its location corresponds to one of the plurality of holes. This enables a common adsorbent sheet to be used with air cleaners in which the installation portions are set in different locations. Moreover, because the number of installation holes is greater than the number of installation portions, the adsorbent sheet can easily be removed when it is to be recycled by using a tool and an installation hole that is not being used.
In this aspect of the invention, a plug portion for plugging, among the installation holes, an installation hole in which the installation portion is not fixed may be provided with the element.
Accordingly, plugging, among the installation holes, an installation hole in which the installation portion is not fixed with the plug portion provided with the element prevents fuel vapor from leaking out from the installation hole in which the installation portion is not fixed.